Investor snapshot 23 Jan 18: Implications of US tax changes

Traders work on the floor at the closing bell of the Dow Industrial Average at the New York Stock Exchange on 25 January 2018 in New York. Picture: Bryan R. Smith/AFPSource:AFP

THE Australian share market looks set to open higher after US and Europe markets enjoyed strong gains at the end of last week. At 0700 AEDT on Monday, the share price futures index was up 30 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 6,015.

US markets were up again on Friday and the three major indices, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all up more than two per cent for the week, driven by strong profit results from pharmaceutical and technology companies including Intel.

“European and US companies are making money and the profit reporting season has been good, economic data hasn’t been so bad either and the US economy grew 2.6 per cent at an annual pace in the December quarter.”

In local economic news, the CoreLogic capital cities house prices report is due out on Monday, as is the CommSec State of the States report.

The Australian market was closed on Friday for the Australia Day public holiday, but on Thursday it finished marginally lower after being in negative territory for most of the day. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index lost 4.7 point to 6,050.0 points.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar hit 81.36 US cents on Friday night. its highest level in two and a half years. At 0700 AEDT on Monday, the local unit was worth 81.06 cents, up from 80.17 on Wednesday.